Wednesday 31 July 2013

The Devils

(Ken Russell, 1971)
IMDB

Based on a true story, The Devils presents  imagery that is difficult and offensive. It presents a very stylised view of France in the 1700's, with looming white architecture, smooth and clinical. It illustrates the old fashioned device of chaos within the hierarchy, by presenting a threat to someone high up, in this case accusing a deeply catholic character of being the devil. It's a very interesting story, particularly now, as it resonates with the current media “trend” that seems to be the paedophilia witch hunt that is so present in today's news. 

8 ½

Federico Fellini, 1963.
IMDB


The narrative is essentially about a blocked film director in his struggle for creativity, it blurs the lines between reality, inner turmoil and fantasy, with chaos being the fundamental base for the storyline. It is set in black and white and intentionally dubbed, with intentionally peculiar characters. People within the cast have evidently been selected specifically for their odd looks. There is a sense of claustrophobia and being trapped; anxiety. The lines between truth, love and age are blurred, mixed with fantasy and presented in a very theatrical way, much like a circus. The soundtrack sounds particularly familiar (to a modern audience).


Eraserhead

(David Lynch, 1977)
IMDB

The dystopian, nightmare of inner self, showing what many believe to be the protagonist's inner turmoil. Atmosphere is created effectively via lighting and really well considered composition; every frame could be a photograph. Strong use of shadowing and light to create harsh surroundings and nightmare-like imagery.

Hairspray

(John Waters, 1988)
IMDB

Classically kitsch and very much “John Waters”, everybody knows the story of Hairspray. It was retro, even in the eighties, and very much bad taste design-wise, but in such a way that, you're very away that it's trying to be trash. Everything within the design is very OTT, similar to a pantomime style, in that it's overtly obvious. It uses this image as a device of raising serious issues like race and sexuality, but does it in a very tongue in cheek way.

One From The Heart

(Francis Ford Coppola, 1982)

One From The Heart is very much a designers film. All of it's sets were custom built indoors with only one small scene being actually filmed in the open air. Set in Las Vegas, it places both of the main characters amid their idealist fantasies of romance, only for them to discover that their ideology of their dream partner is as fake and constructed as the set in which the whole thing occurs. As each character slumps back to their normality (being together as a couple for whom the romance has disappeared) it feels tragically poetic.

Carmen

(Carlos Saura, 1983)
IMDB

“Love is terrible and jealousy is treacherous”.
A flamenco twist on “the world's most famous opera,” Carmen is set within a Spanish flamenco school, much like a mirror within a mirror. The lighting, which is very theatrical, plays a key part in that, in some scenes it's poor so that it may accentuate the bags under the women's eyes, or in other cases, too harsh, so as to blur the features of the characters' faces. In the scene where two performers dance with canes, their shadows cast against the plain white walls, there is a really nice dynamic between their movement and the representation of their shadows, which on occasion move separately from the figures casting them.

Walk The Line

(James Mangold, 2005)

The establishing shot is from a Californian prison watch tower, (later determined to be Folsom) set in 1968. In the foreground, crows pick at scraps. The pace then quickly changes and follows the beat of the music as it rapidly passes by the bars of the cells, as feet rush in the same direction. Hands clap and feet stomp in time to the beat, creating a heartbeat-like frenzy of sound and movement.

Memphis, Tennesse, 1955. The Rock & Roll recording studio that emotes the complete opposite of a Rock & Roll atmosphere; boring and dull. Off-white walls, white blinds and grey furnishings. The three performers each dressed in black suits with their brown instruments. Contrasting hugely to this is the later scene, set in Texas, 1955. The music tour emotes colour and noise, liveliness and free-spirit. Cash's band now each donning white suits and slick dark hair. The diner is typically fifties Americana, with wood panelled walls and units painted opel green. The surfaces are polished and bright white, contrasting with the brown wooden wall shelves. The walls are embellished with a variety of mismatched picture frames and the curtains are typically red and white checked, hung above and below the windows. The table tops match the polished white surface of the counter, at which June Carter (Reese Witherspoon) sits in her very feminine, red and white flower dress, dark hair and cherry red lips.

Koyaanisqatsi

(Godfrey Reggio, 1982.)

Koyaanisqatsi, literally translated as “life out of balance”, is a collection of videos that represent moving image as art. It's an innovative, personal journey documenting time passing via various environmental, industrial and human actions. It's an epic and poetic journey through footage that speaks volumes without any actual dialogue; just the moving image choreographed to the soundtrack composed by Phillip Glass. It's systematic and repetitive music that changes very slightly according to the mood emoted by the visuals.

The initial piece of film we see is footage of slow-motion debris falling, although at first it's not entirely clear what we're looking at. As it slowly widens, it becomes distinct that it's the base of a rocket launch; the scale of which, I personally find quite threatening. In a complete change from this, the footage changes to a largely environmental scene, a wide pan across a landscape of rocks and boulders. Footage of clouds passing over the landscape, casting shadows and creating formations, is sped up to the point of darkness falling. Footage is also shot from in and above the level of the clouds, drawing attention to the movement and formation of such natural occurrences. There's imagery of clouds spilling around mountains and valleys, like water being poured. POV footage takes us through the sky, looking down on the varying landscapes below, showing the audience a different way of viewing nature. It pans across fields of rich colours; blues, purples, reds and yellows. It draws attention the perfection of natural reflections as well as the fluidity in the movement of unaltered/ untouched conditions, like the rolling of waves or the dissipating of clouds and mist.

The next section seems to focus on beauty in unexpected places, man-made surroundings. This is accompanied by big, looming music. The footage goes through a series of heavy machinery, dense black smoke engulfing the screen, implosions, explosions, stills of power lines, long leading lines of pipework; beauty amongst an engineered environment or within destruction. Similarly, the visual features offered by the imagery of war are equally hypnotic and strangely beautiful. Imagery of missiles falling in slow motion, sailing through the sky like birds. Or the POV of a fighter jet flying through the air. Rows of tanks, guns cocked upwards. The space capsule detaching. An atomic bomb detonating. All of the aforementioned are threatening, scary occurrences that, when placed within such a forceful rhythm of film and to such a strong sound, are weirdly mesmerizing.

The next phase of film is heavily centred around a cityscape; overcrowded, busy, dense and relentless. Full car-parks, planes taxiing amid the haze of water vapour, cars filtering in towards the city- bathed in the shadows of skyscrapers. Night footage of tall buildings with lights flickering on and off like parts of a circuit board. High speed, long exposure footage of cars passing through the city, creating lines of light. Aerial shots of cars moving through the labyrinth of roads. The full moon passing behind the silhouetted skyline. The vastness of the cityscape is shown in daylight via a long shot, interrupted by the lens glare of the sun reflecting off of the huge amount of glass and metalwork.


The whole thing feels like feels like a real visual feast, overpowering and stimulating the senses in a completely unique (at the time) and beautiful way.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

(Richard O'Brien, 1975)
IMDB

RHPS started life in the Royal Court Theatre, in 1973, as a “fifties U.S. Cinematic experience”, where the cast of the theatrical performance would act as ushers and interact with the audience. The film was not initially a hit, in fact, it achieved it's cult status via VHS home invasion. It is largely a tribute to early sci-fi and hammer horror B-movies and is very much a British art college film, playing on shock value. In this sense, it aimed to be “everything your parents hate”, very alternative and underground, breaking convention. By the time of it's cinema release, fans of the stage show felt it was dated. In the eighties it was revived as a stage show in the US before the idea was sold back to the UK, where it had originated. Following this it has since become an industry in it's own right as well as something of a modern classic. The film was made in the UK and feels very British, I think.

The film offers a gritty realism in a pantomime sort of way, with levels of design never seen before. Set within a Berkshire country house (with a very “crystal maze” looking dome roof!), the interior varies from gothic to futuristic. The Lab set is sanitized, white-tiled and shiny with red embellishments. I really like the theatre space, with striped red deck chair audience seating, red and gold rope dividers and the classic red velvet curtains; it's very British and nostalgic/ classic amid such an odd array of things going on within the film.